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IMPRESSIONS: An Evening of New Work: Baryshnikov Arts Welcomes Back Aszure Barton & Benjamin Millepied
By Wendy Perron
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Published on November 19, 2025
Courtney Conovan's On the Other Side." Photo: Maria Baranova
World Premiere by Aszure Barton, Commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts
North American Premiere by Benjamin Millepied
October 29 - 30, 2025
More info: CLICK HERE
Celebrating 20 years as a presenter, Baryshnikov Arts is highlighting its residency program. It has supported more than 270 residencies for artists of different disciplines, and Aszure Barton and Benjamin Millepied were among the first.
An Evening of New Work was a chance for Barton and Millepied to express thanks to Baryshnikov Arts (formerly Baryshnikov Arts Center) for supporting their work over the years. While the pieces presented were not the large, complex, bold works that both artists are capable of, they offered us in the audience the rare opportunity to see -close-up- excellent, well-crafted dancing by two major choreographers.
Millepied showed two recent pieces. The first, Hymn to Freedom, was a short opener for four dancers of his L. A. Dance Project. To music of the same title by jazz composer Oscar Peterson, Hymn to Freedom took this quartet in a jaunty direction. Fast, springy footwork alternated with a refreshing, open breathiness. Sometimes the dancers turned their heads sharply in one direction, as though someone had called to them. In the end, when they pulled together in a cluster, it seemed like a hymn to friendship.
On the Other Side, made in 2004 and revised this year, was more substantial. Millepied’s full-bodied vocabulary transcends ballet conventions. The choreography swoops and rolls along with the Philip Glass études, flowing into grandeur punctuated by swirling eddies of motion. In the first section, Courtney Conovan’s every move was breathtaking: fully invested, sinuous, and vulnerable. At the end of that section, the group surrounds her as she slowly reaches, then and exhales into a collapse. Perhaps she was some kind of sacrifice. I also appreciated Zach Gonder, who, in his duet with Daisy Jacobsen, seemed expansive while also devoted to her.
Aszure Barton’s world premiere, Quintettina, has a bracing, but playful quality, energized by the Stravinsky-esque music by Viktor Kalabis and Paul Wiancko, The five dancers of Aszure Barton and Artists often allowed one another to drop, or almost drop, to the ground, sparking other choreographic forms.
The vocabulary juxtaposed elegant and funny, penchés and crouch-walks. That kind of juxtaposition creates moments of humor, but I missed the sheer bizarreness of her larger, more mysterious works like Busk. That said, Barton’s work is always interesting for the unusual points of contact between the dancers. Here we see Nora Brown, in relevé arabesque, her standing foot nestled in the armpit of Abdiel Figueroa Reyes, who is lying on his back. All the dancers were wonderful, especially Jonathan E. Alsberry, who has worked with Barton so long that it’s second nature. From the spine ripples to carefree skipping to gnarly group tangles, he’s in his element.
The contrast between the lusciousness of Millepied and the terseness of Barton reminds us that Baryshnikov—the man and the center—has championed a wide palette of artists’ styles. In appreciation of the many interesting performances I’ve seen there over the years, I add my thanks to Baryshnikov Arts for its contribution as an incubator of the arts.
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